During the affluent noughties it was sometimes said of government that it had "more visions than Mystic Meg and more pilots than British Airways". In 2011, the pilots, the pathfinders, the new initiatives are largely gone--implementation is the name of the game--but the visions remain. The latest one, as it affects adult learners, is in the ministerial foreword to the New challenges, new chances consultation, published last month. The question is: will the implementation match up to the rhetoric? Especially as the delivery of the vision will be made at a local level. In this article, the author argues that any vision for adult learning has to be a local one, shaped and implemented by those on the ground. He discusses three main elements to how the current vision will be implemented.